The Meddlings of an Old Castle
by Healer Pomfrey
Summary: Harry has a date on Valentine's Day, but when Hermione notices that he is ill and drags him to the hospital wing, they end up in a very strange place due to the old castle's meddling. Set in seventh year, completely AU, time travel, sick!Harry, HP/HG


**The Founding of a**** Memorable Valentine's Day**

**~ by Healer Pomfrey ~**

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.  
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes._

_-----_

* * *

Harry dragged himself through his classes. Ever since a few days before, his chest hurt each time he swallowed. '_It should be my throat if I've caught a cold, not my chest_,' he thought in annoyance as he let out a small cough and tried to concentrate on his homework in the common room, which was not only very stuffy and hot this evening, but also very loud, because everyone was talking about Valentine's Day. In this year, their seventh Hogwarts year, Valentine's Day was a Saturday, and of course, Headmistress McGonagall had announced that all students from third year onwards were allowed to go to Hogsmeade for the day.

Harry hadn't bothered to invite anyone. He had played with the thought of asking Ginny, but at first he couldn't find the courage to ask her, and when he had felt that he had caught a cold, he had completely dismissed the thought.

"Harry, what are you playing at?" Ron suddenly hissed at him, causing Harry to look up from his Potions essay in confusion.

"I'm merely trying to do my homework," he replied, coughing.

"I mean Ginny, you git. She's been waiting for you to come to her ever since the end of the war," Ron said angrily.

Harry glanced over to Ginny. She was sitting at the other side of the room, sadly watching Ron and him. He slowly stood up from his chair and walked over to the girl. "Ginny, do you want to go to Hogsmeade with me the day after tomorrow?" he asked softly.

"I was going together with Hermione and Ron, but yes, we can go together," Ginny replied eagerly, giving Harry a huge smile.

"Um... All right then, I'll see you on Saturday morning then," Harry said, suddenly feeling very uncertain how to behave towards the girl. Inwardly sighing in relief as he turned his back to her, he returned to his seat, only to realise that he couldn't concentrate on his homework anyway. He quickly excused himself and went to bed.

On Friday, Harry dragged himself through his classes, noticing that his condition worsened by the hour. He efficiently hid from everyone who miserable he felt; only when Hermione gave him a strange look when he said good night to his friends right after dinner, he admitted that he had a slight headache, waving away his friend's concern with a small gesture of his hand.

However, by the time he woke up in the morning, he felt outright awful. His ears were strangely clogged and everything around him seemed blurry. His cough had worsened overnight, and his chest hurt badly. '_I can't go to Hogsmeade today_,' he thought, trying to fight the dragon that was standing next to his bed breathing fire at him, groaning in annoyance as the dragon commended his efforts by throwing ice only an instant later. '_I'm sick_,' he realised, terrified. '_What can I do? I just have to go to Hogsmeade with Ginny. She won't understand_.' Before he could come to a solution, he drifted back to fevered dreams.

"Harry, get up you lazybones; Ginny is waiting for you," Ron's voice faintly penetrated his ears, causing him to open his sore eyes as far as they were willing to obey.

"Ron, can you tell Ginny that I can't go," Harry mumbled weakly, only barely noticing that his best friend began to hiss at him in an angry voice. He drifted back to delirious dreams, completely oblivious to the fact that Ron headed into the common room and told the two girls, who were waiting for the two of them, that Harry didn't want to go to Hogsmeade.

"Well, then I can't help it," Ginny said sadly and left the common room, while Hermione threw Ron an upset glare.

"If Harry doesn't get up, he must be ill. Ron, go to Hogsmeade with Ginny. I'll go and check on Harry," she said urgently and ran upstairs to the seventh year boys' dormitory.

Harry groaned in annoyance as a bear appeared next to him and covered him with ice. "No, too cold," he mumbled as he tried to fight the bear, sighing in relief when the animal let off of him.

"Harry, you're burning up," Hermione said in concern. "Hold on for a moment." She hurried into the bathroom to fetch a wet towel and a thermometer, before she returned to Harry's side. "Harry, can you open your mouth and let me check your temperature, please."

Harry threw her a miserable look and opened his mouth, shivering violently at the cold touch of the glassy device. While they were waiting for the reading to take place, Hermione gently bathed his flushed face with the cold, wet towel, noticing that Harry unconsciously leaned into the cool touch. Hermione frowned when she took the thermometer back. "Harry, your fever is very high right now. Let me call Madam Pomfrey."

"No," Harry replied weakly, knowing that he definitely did not want the Mediwitch make him float through the halls on a stretcher.

"Then let's go to the hospital wing," Hermione said firmly and gently helped Harry to get up and throw his robes over his pyjamas.

Feeling too miserable to put up a fight with the stubborn girl, Harry complied and slowly walked through the fortunately empty corridors, leaning heavily onto Hermione's arm. When they reached the hospital wing, however, their eyes fell on a small parchment.

'_Dear students and colleagues!  
On the 14th February, I will be at St. Mungo's for the whole day. If you need medical attention, please go to Professor Snape.  
Poppy Pomfrey_'

"Oh no," Harry groaned when Hermione read the short text aloud. "Oh well, let's return to the dormitory."

"Harry, let me go and fetch Professor Snape," Hermione said insistently, eyeing Harry's flushed cheeks and glassy eyes in concern.

"No!" Harry replied firmly, weakly trying to glare at the girl as they slowly walked the way back that they had just come.

バレンタイン旅

Neither of the two seventh years did exactly realise how it happened; however, they were still on their way back to the grand staircase, when they suddenly heard the Potions Master's voice. Harry quickly pulled Hermione into an alcove, and before the two friends knew what happened, they fell through a hole in the wall of the alcove that they hadn't noticed before.

Hermione screamed, and Harry coughed, and finally, the movement stopped as suddenly as it had begun, and they landed on the floor of the same alcove, in which Harry had just pulled Hermione. '_Am I delirious?_' he wondered, leaning against Hermione's arm in exhaustion.

"Harry, are you all right? Do you know what just happened?" Hermione asked, giving him a sharp look.

"No idea," Harry mumbled miserably.

Hermione decisively pulled Harry up from the floor and out of the alcove, and the two friends stopped dead in their tracks when they glanced left and right into the corridor. It looked very different from before. The paintings that had been decorating the walls on both sides were gone. "Where are we? I mean, it seems as if we were at the same place, but it's still different," Hermione said in confusion. "Maybe we're in a different time." Seeing that Harry was in no condition to walk any further, she instructed him to remain on the floor and told him that she was going to fetch Professor Snape.

This time, Harry felt too miserable to protest and quietly leaned his achy head against the wall, while Hermione ran back the short distance to the hospital wing. To her surprise, the parchment wasn't at the door anymore, and she hesitantly opened the door just a little bit, uncertain if Professor Snape would be willing to help Harry into the hospital wing. However, when she looked into the room, she noticed that the hospital wing was much smaller than normal and that not Professor Snape was in the room but an unknown woman. '_We must be in a different time_,' she thought, feeling very excited on the one hand, but terrified on the other. Before anyone could see her, she quietly shut the door and returned to Harry's side to inform him of her findings. She helped Harry up from the floor and gently steadied him the short distance to the hospital room, wondering where they had ended up.

When the two friends entered the room, a very kind looking woman, who from her age and her appearance reminded Hermione and Harry of Madam Pomfrey, bustled over to them. Seeing that Harry could hardly keep himself on his feet, she gently laid her arm around the boy's back and helped him into the nearest bed, before she enquired, "Who are you? I don't think I have met you before."

"We are Harry Potter and Hermione Granger," Hermione introduced them and eagerly explained what had happened, while the woman waved her wand over Harry.

"I am afraid that your friend has caught pneumonia," the Healer said with a grave expression. "He'll have to stay here in bed for at least two weeks, maybe several more, since I don't have a potion for pneumonia. I can only give him something for a normal respiratory infection and the fever."

"Excuse me, Madame," Hermione asked hesitantly, "Is my assumption correct that we somehow managed to time travel into the past?"

"We currently have the year 1012. I am Helga Hufflepuff by the way, Ms. Granger."

Hermione let out a gasp. "Harry, we ended up in the time of the Founders," she blurted out in absolute amazement. "Wow, this is just wonderful. Are the other three Founders around as well?"

"Of course." Helga chuckled, while she spelled two potions into Harry's system and gently adjusted an ice pack to his forehead. "I'll call them and introduce you to them."

"Feels good," Harry mumbled groggily. "Thank you so much."

"I am the Healer here. Who would help you if not me?" Helga said, smiling. "Now, I'll call my colleagues, and I'll be back in a blink. Your friend will be here with you," she informed him in a soft voice, motioning for Hermione to make herself comfortable on a chair, before she left the room through a connecting door at the farther end of the room.

"I'm sorry, Mione," Harry whispered, lazily opening his eyes just a little bit.

"That's all right, Harry. It's not your fault that we ended up here, and I don't mind being here if you're with me. Just get well soon, Harry." She leaned over and quickly kissed Harry on the cheek, frowning at the warmth of his skin.

"Love you, Mione," Harry mumbled, ending up in a coughing fit, just when Helga returned to their side with her three colleagues in tow.

"Time travellers?" Godric Gryffindor queried with interest, before he explained, "That hole is something, which Hogwarts produced herself. She is very stubborn and has her own ideas. In fact, I managed to experience the same hole before and was taken back twenty years into the past, because Hogwarts wanted me to change something with her walls when we were still constructing them. The only way to return to my own time was to become a bird Animagus. That is why I learned to transform into a phoenix."

"The boy is in no condition to learn anything," Salazar sneered. "It's a wonder that he is still alive. Such dunderheads! Don't you have a Healer in your time?"

"Yes we have, but she wasn't available when we arrived here, and our way back to Gryffindor it happened, sir," Hermione replied, getting slightly angry at the Potions Master's words, especially when he mumbled something that sounded like "Gryffindor idiots."

"Well, it should suffice if you learn to become a phoenix Animagus. You can take your friend with you," Godric said to Hermione, who threw him an anxious look.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I'm Muggle born. I don't know if I'll be able to become an Animagus at all," she said quietly.

Harry let out a snort that turned into a coughing fit, while Salazar's expression turned to disgust when he repeated, "Muggle born?"

"Yes, but she is Head girl and the best student in our year," Harry threw in, coughing again.

"Salazar, behave yourself and don't upset my patient," Helga admonished the tall wizard in a firm voice, before she turned to Hermione. "I'm sorry, sweetie. My husband has a loose tongue, but he doesn't mean it."

"Harry..." Rowena spoke up pensively. "Is his last name Potter?"

"Yes," Hermione admitted in surprise.

"I am a Seer," Rowena explained gently. "I know this boy. He is the saviour of the magical world in the future. I suggest that while Harry recovers and Hermione learns to become an Animagus, the four of us teach both of you as much as possible. You're both going to become professors at Hogwarts, aren't you? I see you as Charms professor and Harry as Transfiguration teacher in the future."

"Yes," Hermione said excitedly. "Professor McGonagall, our Headmistress and former Head of House, offered the posts to us a few weeks ago."

バレンタイン旅

Fortunately, the summer holidays had just begun, and the Founders had much time to spend with their guests from the future. While Helga, Rowena and Hermione took turns staying with Harry, Godric taught Hermione the Animagus transformation, and Salazar offered that she could assist in the Potions lab. Whenever the two ancient wizards thought that Hermione had studied enough for the day, she spent the rest of the day with Harry, reading and talking to him in her soft voice, trying to make him feel better.

Only after a month, Helga grudgingly allowed Harry out of bed for a short time; however, she insisted that he had to stay in her time for another month in order to completely recover before he could travel back to the future, provided that Hermione had managed the complete Animagus transformation by then.

"Of course she will," Harry said firmly, and unbeknownst to Helga, who seemed to be very protective of him, he tried to transform into a phoenix as well, and by the end of the summer holidays in the past, both friends were able to change into phoenixes.

"I'm going to miss spending so much time with you," Harry said softly when they readied themselves for their travel back to the future.

"We'll try to be together as much as possible, and it's only a few more months, before everyone else will leave, while we're going to remain at Hogwarts," Hermione replied softly, before she leaned over and captured his mouth with her lips.

"I love you, Mione," Harry whispered when he finally managed to pull away.

"I thought you only said that when you were delirious," Hermione whispered, before Harry shut her up by pulling her into another long kiss.

"No, I've always loved you," he whispered, gently moving his hands over the small curves of her body.

A few minutes later, they transformed into their phoenix forms. While Hermione was a fire phoenix like Fawkes, Harry took the form of a dark blue water phoenix with light emerald back feathers. They flew back through the hole in the wall to the future. Arriving in the small alcove, they transformed back into their human forms, and Harry said in a soft voice, "Thank you, Hogwarts, for being such a meddling old castle. You did me a great favour."

Back in the common room, they spent the rest of the day cuddling and kissing on the sofa, only being pulled back to reality when Ron and Ginny entered the common room.

"I can clearly see that you're too sick to go on a date with Ginny," Ron began to shout at his supposed to be best friend, while Ginny dashed out of the common room immediately.

"I'm sorry," Harry said uncomfortably, averting his eyes to the floor.

However, Hermione pulled him closer, whispering, "I'm not sorry. Happy Valentine's Day, Harry."

"Happy Valentine's Day to you too, Mione," Harry replied softly, gently pulling her into a long kiss.

**The End**

_When my seven-year-old son wrote a small Harry Potter Valentine's Day drabble (Harry and the Gummy Bears by Skippylonglong) and posted it to fanfictionnet, I decided to write one__ as well – I hope you liked it. __Happy Valentine's Day!_


End file.
